A new U.S. Energy Independence & Security Act passed late Thursday afternoon and is aimed at redistributing financial support from the oil and gas sector to the renewables sector, a “shot heard around the world,” according to a senior political leader.

American lawmakers passed an ammendment to an energy bill revised since this summer and aimed at sending energy dollars “to the Midwest, not the Middle East”, the motto of Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

The bill promises to move about $22 billion in taxes by 2020 from consumers to the oil and gas industry. Specifically, the bill ends a tax deduction for domestic producers of oil and gas.

In 60 days, a $9-dollar-a-barrel, $1.25 million Btu tax on producing Gulf of Mexico oil and gas acreage and a $3.75 per acre tax for “nonproducing oil and gas leases” will be levied.

Pelosi cited the “signatures of 20 generals” who supported weening the U.S. off oil, including one who said “Our dependence on foreign oil is a clear and present danger to Americans.”

Even the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers weighed in with a letter of support purportedly saying the bill we be better for consumers.

ws@scandoil.com